Saturday, October 13, 2007

Passive Politics

Jimmy is a freshman in college. It's Friday night and the party is rocking. The clock passes midnight and everybody is having a great time. Jimmy doesn't drink but he's the only one that's not. Jimmy finally decides it's time to go, but a couple guys from his dorm bump into him. "Hey Jimmy, we heard about this other great party. It's in the big city. Do you want to ride with us?" Jimmy thinks about it, but he's tired and he really doesn't want to go, but he knows these guys shouldn't be driving in their condition. Jimmy says, "You guys have fun. I'm just too tired." He watches them drive away in their black corvette and walks home.

Jimmy wakes up later that morning and reads the newspaper. A black corvette carrying four college students crossed over the median on the highway and struck a minivan killing everyone in the van and all four college kids. Who is at fault for this accident? You could argue that Jimmy is partially at fault for knowing that these kids were doing something bad but did nothing about it. I made up this little parable, but it is a story that is very real. This sort of thing happens. Who is at fault could be debatable. There is probably plenty of blame to go around, but I ask you who in this story was at no fault whatsoever? The minivan carrying a family who was nearing the end of their trip to grandma's house was obeying all the traffic rules. When the car came flying at them, the driver had no time to react. This whole family died innocently. They never had a chance to survive, much like an unborn baby. We are like Jimmy, watching millions of innocent babies are killed and we watch this happen but do nothing. Yes those who are performing the abortion are making the choice, not us. You could also argue that those college kids were making a choice when they drove while drunk.

Drinking and driving kills between 1000 - 2000 people per year. Abortion kills 126,000 PER DAY! In the United States alone, abortion claims 1.37 million lives per year. On average, every woman will commit one abortion! Drinking and driving is against the law, abortion is not. We are hearing politicians say things like: "I am personally against abortion, but I don't feel I can legislate against abortion." Oh, so this is like: "I am personally against drinking and driving, but I can't legislate against a person's right to choose." Oh wait, we can legislate in regards to that choice. People have choices, but choices have consequences. It is ridiculous to say you can't legislate because it will interfere with a woman's right to choose if she wants to kill her child. Oh it's against the law if the child is outside the womb, but if it's still in the mother I guess it's not real. That makes sense. If we fight dogs we are looking at major time in jail, but if we kill our own child, we get off scott-free; sometimes we even get applauded for making a smart choice.

I'm tired of what I call Passive Politics. Passive politics - avoiding important issues so as to please the most people or at least upset the fewest. It is a fact that abortion is a split issue. Hundreds of thousands support abortion rights. The only explanation for this is that we are living in a culture where this gradually became an accepted position. A culture of death. If people understood the facts, I don't know how abortion could remain legal. Those who fight that keeping it legal will help reduce abortions are misguided. I want politicians to stand up for life, make it the number one issue and act on this issue. Words mean nothing, actions mean everything. The only presidential candidate that is pro-life, whole-life is republican Sam Brownback. We need Brownback in this critical time. When the primaries come around, I ask that you prayerfully consider the best candidate and go out and vote. No other issue claims as many lives, and no issue is more important.

2 comments:

Kyle said...

We need to be careful when we use government to force women into a tough bind. Some women are going to get an abortion, no matter who performs it. I'd prefer the procedure to be clean and safe -- instead of dirty and dangerous. I think that women are better off without having to resort to black markets and unlicensed doctors. Some people think we should limit abortions to only cases of rape or the health of the mother. This forces a woman to go to court to prove she was raped -- a difficult and costly matter. In the case of the mother's health, she would have to prove to a court that her health was in danger. The slow inefficiencies inherent in the judicial system would certainly bring about cases where women would die waiting to get a lifesaving procedure. So -- my disagreement is the creation of a black market for dangerous unlicensed doctors, and the expansion of a judicial system, already bloated with frivolous cases.

Mike said...

I have heard this argument before. Women are going to have abortions anyway, so why not make it legal right? You can make that statement for any of our laws. There will be people that break the laws, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have the laws in place. This is a life issue and we need laws against abortion. Obviously, I don't endorse endangering the mother's life, but many abortions are made when the mother's life is not in danger. Although we disagree, I thank you for your comments.